Music from Salem celebrates 25 years

Violist Lila Brown studied at The Juilliard School and has held long term positions in orchestras and other ensembles in Sweden, Austria and Germany. But the constant over the last 25 years has been playing chamber music during the summer in Washington County.

Music from Salem is the name of the series co-founded in 1986 by Brown and violinist Judith Eissenberg. The concerts take place in Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, but the music comes from just up the road in the even smaller hamlet of Salem.

That’s where Brown’s parents had a large old farmhouse that she inherited and now maintains as a kind of musical retreat. In warm weather the house and a renovated barn can sleep 15 (plus instruments), which is more than enough for a healthy-sized chamber music ensemble.

Highlights from Music from Salem’s twenty-five seasons will be offered tonight at a gala, while the season officially launches on Saturday with the first of four weekend programs.

“We wanted to create an artistic experience for the musicians and the audience that has some depth,” says Brown. “So we take some time to rehearse. We all live together at the farm for five or six days and something really takes place in that time. We’re not playing a lot of music in a short period of time like most festivals must do to make ends meet.”

That’s not to say there aren’t some large undertakings, at least relative to normal chamber music standards. Take as an example the season finale on Sunday August 14. It features strings octets of Mendelssohn and Enesco. Every season also has a healthy sampling of contemporary repertoire. This Saturday’s program, titled “From the Brandenburg Court to California” has Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5, a piano quartet by Saint-Saens and works of West coast composers Erwin Schulhoff and Roger Reynolds. And on July 17, music of Schubert frames selections by contemporary Americans Morton Feldman, David Del Tredici and Tom Johnson.

“It’s really important to have programs that work, not just saying well we have these instruments and so we can play these pieces,” says Brown. “But there has to be some artistic programming to the concert itself. Not a catchy title but a concept and an inner cohesion.”

Besides an intelligent selection of works, Music from Salem draws many fine players from across the country. They’re not stars, necessarily, but top level professionals. Among the performers who are returning this summer for a week or more in Salem are cellist Rhonda Rider who’s a founding of the acclaimed Lydian Quartet, violinist Jorja Fleezanis, the recently retired concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra, and cellist Scott Kluksdahl, who’s a tenured professor at the University of South Florida. Some previous Music from Salem regulars have grown too busy to take the time any longer, such as clarinetist David Krakauer.

In a recent conversation, Brown repeatedly referred to the Washington County setting, calling it relaxed and agricultural, but also magical. Its fertile soul has recently nurtured a growth in Music from Salem’s programming beyond just the mid-summer concerts. A few years ago a pre-season Cello Seminar began as a week-long training program for young players to focus exclusively on contemporary music. A similar Viola Seminar was added this year.

Last year Brown also formed a Listening Club. Despite the name, no membership is required, only an interest in learning more deeply how music works. At the gatherings, Brown plays some recordings and also some pieces on her viola.

“I take a subject like serenades and talk about it and play a lot of serenades by Mozart and Schoenberg and Stravinsky and Schubert,” explains Brown. “I try to help people feel more confident about what they’re hearing and not feel inadequate about articulating what they feel about what they’re hearing.”

The Listening Club events also take place at Hubbard Hall and happen periodically during the fall through spring.

When Brown says of her subjects, “It’s something I feel inspired about and want to get others inspired about,” she could easily be talking about the entire Music from Salem enterprise.

“What we do is so intimate. We don’t have all the big splashy stuff of larger festivals,” she continues. “ We just make good music. That’s all we want to do and that’s what we hope people discover.”

Joseph Dalton is the author of “Artists & Activists: Making Culture in New York’s Capital Region” and a regular contributor to the Times Union. He blogs at: http://www.hudsonsounds.org.

Music from Salem Celebrates 25 Years.

The summer chamber music series in Washington County celebrates its 25th anniversary tonight with an informal gala dinner and concert. Call 232-2347. The regular season starts this weekend.